Heat-induced Signal Transduction Pathways Leading to Cell Death and Cell Survival in Cancer Cells

Abstract

In recent years, cancer therapy research has focused on molecular targets. For efficient hyperthermic cancer therapy, potential targets of interest are molecules which respond to heat and selectively activate signal transduction factors which can inhibit cancer cell proliferation. Signal transduction pathways affected by heat include p53 mediated pathways, JNK (Jun N-terminal kinase) mediated pathways, Akt (protein kinase B) mediated pathways, NBS1 (Nijimegen breakage syndrome 1) mediated pathways, classic MAP (mitogen activated protein) kinase mediated pathways, and p38 MAP kinase mediated pathways. Events such as cell death, cell survival, cell proliferation, and/or cell cycle arrest can be affected by these pathways. To learn more about heat-induced gene and protein expression, cDNA arrays and protein microarrays were used to study cellular responses to heat. This paper briefly reviews interactions of pro- and anti-apoptotic genes and proteins which are induced by heat shock and are components of signal transduction pathways.